Food and beverage serving establishments employ a large number of glasses during a normal business day, and it is necessary to store these glasses in a manner that will render them readily accessible. In the past, overhead racks have been developed for suspending stemware in an inverted position to enhance drying of the glasses when wet and to provide storage in a convenient out-of-the-way location. U.S. Pat. No. 3,022,899 to Alan R. Unsworth discloses a rack of this type formed by a plurality of spaced rails supported by brackets. Racks of this type are quite effective for retaining glass stemware in an inverted position.
Overhead racks for supporting inverted glass stemware have, in the past, incorporated certain characteristics which are somewhat undesirable. First, when such racks are constructed to receive a variety of stemware sizes, the racks have normally been unsightly, and in the alternative, when the racks are made uniform, the use thereof has been extremely limited. Ideally, an overhead rack should provide an aesthetic appearance and contribute to the overall decor of the area within which the rack is placed. Consequently, the rack should be symmetrical with the glass supporting rails thereof evenly spaced. However, in the past evenly spaced glass support rails have limited the use of the racks severely to glasses of only a size which will fit between all of the evenly spaced supporting rails.
Overhead racks capable of supporting glass stemware of widely varying sizes have been constructed with support rails which are unevenly spaced. Thus, as the stemware size increases, the support rails are spaced further and further apart, and such racks are not symmetrical or even in appearance. Thus, aesthetics is sacrificed for practicality.
Aside from aesthetic considerations, overhead stemware racks with unevenly spaced support rails are also difficult to use. It is necessary for a person placing glasses into the rack to carefully select, through trial and error, the support rails which are properly spaced to receive glasses of a certain size. This is not only time consuming, but glasses may easily be improperly placed within the rack and subsequently may fall causing damage or injury.
Finally, inverted stemware racks of the prior art have generally required heavy support brackets which must be secured to a solid overhead support structure. These support brackets are not adjustable, and such overhead racks have not been suitable for use with suspended ceiling structures of the type often found in commercial establishments.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more problems related to the above mentioned known prior art.